Wall Art of the 8th Makes News!

The last remaining wall art of the 8th USAAF has been making news around the world. The Observer newspaper ran a full page article by Robert Stummer on page 11 of the paper on Sunday 18 May 2014 – and the online edition also featured a great interactive gallery from acclaimed photographer Si Barber. ( Image Above)

As our community archeologist, Hannah Potter, said in the paper,

Second world war archaeology is a fairly new discipline. It’s a wholly different approach than that for ancient archaeology. We have photographs from the time that can be matched with what’s there now. Artworks in the bases will be gone soon. Murals which, when photographed in the 1980s, were brightly coloured, have now gone. The buildings weren’t meant to last, so it’s a challenge to preserve them. All you can do is record them.

We’re asking for public help with identifying and recording their own local buildings from the war, but a lot are on private land. This is a huge part of our history.

You can read the Observer article in full here.

We’ve also been featured by the BBC. You can read their fabulous update on the project here. The article tells a little more about our work and shows some more great images of the artwork. As David Cain, Project Manager, says in the article,

 Every airbase had wall art in some form, from cartoons to pin-ups. It was seen as bringing life to the airbases at the time, but also as leaving their mark because they did not know whether they were coming back or not.

And what’s more we’re big in Japan too – The Japan Times, Japan’s oldest English Language newspaper, has carried a feature about our work in recording and preserving these precious artworks.

You can read their online article here

If you would like to help us with recording and preserving these wonderful paintings please get in touch with the team.

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